Final War - Washington

He walks on a foundation that was once a symbol of freedom. The horizon is red and black smoke rises to the heavens. Flames and explosions ignite around him. He looks at his rifle and the screen on the body of the weapon reads zero rounds available.

He yells loudly and removes his iron helmet, the face guard and visor already shattered from a shrapnel explosion from a prior encounter. His face is worn and dirty, but he is filled with passion and persistence.

The Soldier is clad in digital military armor plating and his body is like a barbarian. His tattered insignia printed on his shoulder was torn off and blood trails from his legs. Most of the blood was not his own.

He waves his arm and yells loudly behind him. A group of men dressed in the same military dress rise from a trench and with their weapons loaded they begin firing out into the black smoke and flames. The rifles unload beams of light and red pulses of what can only be considered plasma. These future freedom fighters with the heart of Romans, standing until the end, awaiting a well deserved victory.

The soldier turns his empty rifle around and swings it out at a robotic figure nearly twice his size. The butt of the weapon makes contact with the metallic skull and instantly crushes it. Sparks fly off from the fractured head and the mechanized enemy begins twitching uncontrollably. It kicks around like a dying cockroach.

The sky screams and roars as a dual propped jet flies over head. The familiar sound of whistling of bombs before impact is heard by the soldiers.

"Hit the deck! Incoming!" One of the soldiers says and everyone falls to the ground and they hold their helmets, prepared for impact and the rumble of the earth at their feet.

The ground shakes violently and the red sky turns yellow as the torrents of fire flare into pillars of maelstrom, throwing concrete and debris around like a hurricane or tornado. What was once a car flies dozens of feet over the unmasked patriot, and it slams violently into a building with a sign that read, "First National Bank."

The charge continues, the explosions pass and the pillars of fire continue to flare like how trees stand in a forest. The soldiers get up from their defensive positions. They bob and weave around the explosions, jumping over fallen comrades screaming for their mothers. The yelling and screaming around them seems chaotic, the banter of orders and directives ordered by the military leaders.

In the distance, large silhouetted shadows of the enemy rise from the smoke. The legion of wires and metal approaches the combat with heartless and unemotional response to the soldiers. From the ash and smoke, an infinite number of lasers span towards the soldiers. The patriot continues his march and his soldiers follow behind.

He doesn't care what happens to him, he must win this battle. He roars a battle cry for freedom. He screams after a red laser skewers through his body like a warm knife through butter. He flies into the air and falls backwards on the crushed concrete of what once was a road. He holds his chest and his hands become crimson. He gasps and tries to order his men to continue.

"Sir, stay with me!" A medic says as he pulls a medical bag from his equipment. He holds the patriot's hand and then drives a needle into the injured warrior. "Don't you dare die on me Corporal."

It was too late for the soldier, and the medic's voice was distant. He gasps for air, fighting against the inevitable. He looks at the medic and coughs blood. He tells the medic, "Go on! Save someone who can continue the fight!" A true patriot until the end, his eyes roll into the back of his head as the injection begins to take effect. The drunken stupor of euphoria overcomes the Corporal.

The medic gets up and packs his bag, "Shit!" He slaps another magazine of ammunition into his battered rifle and chases after a squad of men that passed by them.

The robotic legion continues their military march in a single file. Some drop like ducks from a carnival game. Others take a beating from the rifle shots, pinging and bouncing back only to release a fury of military force. Their rifles were more sophisticated and fare more lethal than their human creators.

A human sniper loads a thick explosive bullet into his .50 caliber rife. He aims for the head of the heads of the war machines. It was their most vulnerable area. He licks his thumb and then cleans the eyelet of the aiming device mounted on top of his weapon. He pulls the trigger and the bullet aims dead target.

"Seventeen," The sniper counts as he loads another bullet into his rifle. His breath is steady and he remains entirely unmoving. Focused and patient, he is a veteran at this game and he knows how it's played.

A rolling beast of metal crunches over the remains of the robotic dead, the turret of the machine is massive, the barrel still smokes and red from nearly overheating. The machine moves its mass over towards the tower where the sniper hides. The canon rises for trajectory and at that moment it sights the position.

The veteran looks through his eyelet zoom mount on the rifle and looks in disbelief. He watches the cannon load a round inside of its barrel. He drops his rifle and begins running out of the room inside the tower. He begins climbing down the stairs with every intention to survive the attack.

The canon buzzes loudly and its barrel glows red before unleashing a powerful beam at the tower. The impact explodes within the belly of the tower and it tumbles down like a pile of bricks. The machine turns its turret and slowly crawls over the mounds of destroyed debris. The legion of robotic infantry continues their approach to their enemy over the mound of dark smoke.

Another soldier hides in a crater from an earlier explosion. He taps another soldier on his left shoulder and yells a command that gets swallowed by the scream of a flying machine in the red heavens.

The tapped soldier gets up and mounts a massive missile system over his opposite shoulder. He pulls a trigger and a rocket flares out from it. The trail of silver smoke gives away their position, but the rocket may be worth the effort.

The enemy tank explodes instantly as the rocket makes impact. The concussion wave knocks down the robotic infantry and the human patriots engage their enemy. They fire their rifles into the chest of their robotic opponents and curse at them for their travesties on mankind.

Distant explosions are heard while, but the battlefield appears to be quiet. The day was won by the soldiers as they look around for any mechanical movements. They see and sense nothing out of the normal. A soldier wearing silver bars looks around in his binoculars. They zoom in and out in several image-enhanced modulations. They all read negative movement. The captain looks to his comrade and takes a hand held radio in his grasp, "Patrol the area for possible hostiles. Immediate threat is neutralized.

The word gets out around the platoon of men and they begin cheering. They look at one another and raise their rifles high into the air. Some fire shots of victory, others kneel and look at the sprawling dead. The flies did not take long to feast on their comrades.

Another screaming jet is heard in the heavens and another whistle of a bomb. Again the soldiers inform each other of the incoming attack. They all drop to the ground and cover their heads. The explosion will pass. This day has been won.

The jet veers away and climbs altitude with ease. The jet escapes the hostile land, its losses are measured and it was ordered to return back for repairs. The bomb continues to fall to the earth and the earth eagerly awaits the final explosion.

The jet speeds away as a brilliant flash of light is made. A column of smoke rises hundreds of feet. The blast cremates the ground and melts the dirt into glass. The land becomes an inferno and every building left standing collapses like a stack of cards. The familiar appearance of a nuclear explosion reigns over the land and for hundreds of miles the rattle of the earth is felt. From dozens of miles, the tall column of smoke is seen. A reminder that the battle was won but the war was far from over.